The play's end
by Morfanerina
Summary: Mai and the gang got a new case though this one is slightly different than usual. Why? It involves something about some Black Order.
1. Prologue

My first try at a crossover... let's see how many people will read this if it's on the crossovers section.

And yeah... the prologue is short.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

**_Prologue_**

Golden eyes with a hint of worry and regret followed the walking boy. By his peripheral vision, he saw another, slightly older, man with worried brown eyes also staring at the teen. He closed his eyes. 'We're at our limit.' He thought. Their energy was dissipating fast.

"God, please let this child, your warrior that so much suffered, be with his friends, for a promise and his salvation before our energy disappears and he be consumed by that last curse of Humanity's nemesis. Even if you hate me save this child." The older man turned his attention to the other hearing the prayer.

He noted, with a sad smile, that the stigmata disappeared and the other's man eyes changed to brown like his. 'How ironic that you, my little brother, would pray to an entity that you hate so much for a boy's soul that you almost consumed. He caught both of us, huh…' the man returned his attention to the teen and said "Walk Allen. Never stop walking." What the man didn't know was that the boy repeated that softly as he was walking.

In Japan, on a certain girl's room, a soft green glow appeared but swiftly disappeared. The girl only stirred on her sleep and continued dreaming oblivious to what would happen.

* * *

So, got you interested? I'll give you a cyber chocolate if you **review**~


	2. The case

_**The case**_

"Mai, tea." Was the first thing the short haired girl heard when entering the Shibuya Psychic Research office, panting because she ran from her home to try not to be so late for work (and failing). "Yeah, yeah…" she grumbled as she made her way to the kitchen and stared to make tea 'Might as well make some for Lin-san. And some toasts for me.' Mai thought as she stifled a yawn. Because she woke up late she didn't have time for breakfast (again)and now she was starving.

While making the tea and toasts the sixteen year old let her mind wander to the dream she had. She didn't remember most of it. She only remembered some weird green glow, a katana, some boots ('high heeled' she noted), a hammer that could grow and a white cape with a mask. She returned to reality by the tea and the toasts. 'It's only a dream, I mean, it's impossible to hammer's to grow right?' she asked herself as she grabbed the tea and went to give it to her (hot) narcissist boss, A.K.A Naru, and Lin.

After the task was done (without a word of thanks by her boss), Mai ate the toasts and started to organize the files from their cases. After five minutes of that she heard the bell and went answering it.

At the door there was a woman in her twenty's, black hair that reached her shoulders and really nervous. "Hello. Welcome to Shibuya Psychic Research office. Enter please. I'll just go get my boss." She welcomed, smiling, trying to make the woman less nervous. The woman nodded, entered and sat down on the coach as Mai called Naru and Lin.

Naru went to the woman and introduced himself, Lin and Mai as the latter got some tea. Lin, as usual, was behind his computer typing something. When everyone was in order it was time for business.

The seventeen year old started by asking the name and purpose. The woman fidgeted a little but started to talk with a british accent. " My name is Evangeline Galmar and I've come to you because of weird happenings near my village." Evangeline paused "My village is in England but I've heard that you solved some difficult cases and I was expecting that maybe you could help me and the spirits."

There was some silence until Naru asked "What sort of happenings?"

The woman took a breath and answered "People that go to the tower near the village have different views but some say they saw a Chinese girl, others a Japanese Boy with a Katana or another boy but with red hair and an eyepatch. But, most of those people went in groups and sometimes one seems to go mad and, in some cases, even went as far as killing another one from the group. " Mai went wide eyed at the revelation.

Naru thought a little, sighed and looked into the eyes of Evangeline "It seems dangerous. Why do you want us to see that tower if you only need to stop people to enter?"

"Teenagers usually are the ones going there to make some of those silly dares of theirs. We can't stop it." Galmar hesitated before continuing "That tower… is not some creepy gothic like tower just for show (even though it seems).It's more important than that." She took a gulp of air "Have you heard of the Black Order?"

The response surprised Mai. Naru' eyes went wide of shock and surprise and Lin stopped his typing to look at Evangeline showing shock for a millisecond but both put the mask immediately on. However they continued to stare.

Seeming happy by their reactions she continued "That tower is the last of the HQ of that order it seems. Even though the Vatican deny their existence, our village has been protecting that history by telling our children. I heard from my grandfather. It is said that the original villagers from that place were people from the order. You may not believe but please go see the matter." She got up, nervousness forgotten, and put a card and a folder on the table. "I'll give time for you to decide so when you reach your decision please call me with this number. More information is in the folder. Goodbye and thank you for the attention Shibuya-san, Lin-san and Mai-san." Mai got up and took the woman to the door, closing it when Evangeline got out and turned to see her boss and Lin engrossed in thought.

'Whoa, I wonder what the Black Order was to get such a reaction.' She grabbed the empty cups and went to the kitchen. She started washing them while wondering about the case. 'Will Naru accept it? Why that reaction? And what did she mean by the Vatican denying it?' she continuing musing until there were no more cups and dishes to clean and with a sigh returned to the living room.

Naru was watching the files when the sixteen year old arrived and, as she sat on the couch, noted a photo about a really high tower, apparently on top of a cliff that seemed to scream HAUNTED to her. It didn't help that the weather was dark like it was going to rain any second. 'THIS is the haunted tower?' the question must have been etched on her face because our beloved narcissist said "Yes Mai. That is the tower Galmar-san was talking about." It wouldn't have irked her so much if he didn't used _that_ tone and smirking so, as an answer, she glared.

Before Naru could return to his files Mai let her curiosity take the best of her "Ne Naru, What's the Black Order?" the girl waited a little and was going to give up when she heard him. "The Black Order was said to be an Order with exorcists that went around the world searching some sort of object and destroying Akuma. It is said that they were really active at the end of the nineteenth century. There were Finders that looked for information and then the exorcists. These could be recognized by the Rose Cross above their hearts. However it is said to be a legend because all of the information about it was destroyed for some reason in the twentieth century. There may still exist some historical documents though." The seventeen year old finished and returned to reading the files.

'Object? Akuma? Finder? Exorcists?' she looked at Naru that stopped reading and asked "Are we going?" the boy looked at her brown eyes and answered a clear "Yes."


	3. Entering the tower

**_Entering the tower_**

The sixteen year old opened sleepy eyes to the fast speeding image of trees. It took her awhile to remember where she was. As she blinked her eyes to dispel her drowsiness a voice said "Oh you're awake Mai!" she focused on the self appointed Miko, who was on the front passenger seat, when she recalled the reason why she was there. "Oh. Hi Ayako. Where are we?" she absent mindedly remembered that when she fell asleep there was still civilization.

"Somewhere in the middle of nowhere." The blond monk answered her. Mai knew that the village was not easy to find since, as the client explained, it was somewhere near a forest. For some reason that seemed to attract some tourists… that or the legends about famous disappearances near it.

She could see on the front glass a black van and sighed. Masako and her played Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who would go with Naru. She lost. "So why didn't John and Yasuhara come?" the question made her return to the real world. She replied "Yasuhara had some work to do as did John. They said that when they could they would come." Her brown eyes looked at Bou-san "I answered yours now answer me. Are we near?" Houshou (his real name) seemed to think for a bit before answering "It shouldn't be so far now…"

A pack of cookies suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. The short haired girl returned her attention at the older woman with a questioning look "We have been on the road for some time now. That I know, you barely ate anything from the plane so, you must be hungry. Even if you aren't, eat it. It isn't healthy to not eat for so long.". Only now did she noticed how hungry she was and accepted them. As she ate she let her mind wander to the dream she had on the plain. Black pentagons appearing on people, turning them into dust… she shivered. She woke up without an appetite because of that. Fortunately she remained in check so no one really noticed the nervousness the dream provoked. Well… everyone but her narcissist boss that looked at her with a questioning eyebrow.

The car stopped as she ate the last cookie. Everyone stepped out of the cars and looked at the village. It was more like a small town though but, as Evangeline said, it is written in the papers like a village. Some people that were on the street looked at them curiously but never stopping their walk. A certain man approached them. He had short black hair and looked like he was in his thirties.

"Hello. Are you by any chance the SPR group?" he received some nods and the brunette girl was relieved to hear Japanese "I'm John Hearst and I'll take you to the tower but first, could you tell me your names?" Everyone introduced themselves to the man and followed him to a white house. "I'm sure you're hungry. I made something for you to eat. If you don't mind British food that is." Mai and the others said that they didn't mind. They sat and started eating.

When everyone finished Hearst had some bags for each one. He justified that it had some items that might be useful and gave some books to Naru. They took off, behind the man, and stopped as they reached a really high mountain that, apparently, had the tower on top.

Mai couldn't think of any way to reach it than to climb it which, she was certain she couldn't. It was too high. The Miko and medium seemed to have thought the same thing because their faces just yelled "I'm NOT climbing THIS". John chuckled seeing their faces. "No need to worry you're not going to climb it." He took them to a small cave, hidden in some bushes, where there were some boats on a underground river. He signaled them to get inside on the boats with three in each and they rowed until reaching a small deck.

They got out. "Well, I bid you goodbye. I won't go anywhere inside. Be careful." With that, John Hearst rowed his boat away from there.

The group went through a small entrance and was surprised. The tower was circular, huge with many levels above them and in the middle of the rooms there was a circular empty space. Mai was occupied gaping while she looked at the tower so she didn't noticed stepping onto a big circular platform until she went against some sort of lever. She blinked and turned. Curious of what it did, but not risking doing something she would regret, she called everyone over. Naru was the first one reaching her.

"Ne Naru, what do you think this does?" her boss smirked and, when the whole group was inside the platform, he pulled the lever. The effect surprised everyone (except Naru and Lin). They went up. Like in a lift. The difference? It didn't have walls protecting from falling. Naru pulled the lever again stopping the lift on one of the upper levels. The shocked part of the group was still in their positions. Ayako was grabbing the Monk's arm like a lifeline and Mai and Masako were sitting. "Naru." The part timer growled "Why did you do THAT?" the accused narcissist smirked again "You asked. I answered." He turned and exited the platform leaving her speechless.

The shock passed and they followed the SPR's boss.

Masako was walking with her kimono sleeve in front of her mouth and a mixed surprised, confused and cautious look in her eyes. Mai noticed "What's wrong Masako?" the medium narrowed her eyes. "There's definitely something here but… it's strange…" everyone had their attention on her "I can feel them but it's almost imperceptible as if there's some interference."

Naru lifted his eyebrow "Do you know how many are there?" The girl bit her lip. "More than one but I can't count how many ex-" she stopped and turned suddenly. "What's wrong?" Bou-san asked worried, already prepared to start to chant. Masako shook her head "There's nothing…"

Mai shivered feeling that she was being watched.

Unknown to the group, an emerald eye was watching them a little away from the place that the medium looked and, watching from another place, a pair of golden eyes were searching the next target. 'So who's going to be my next doll~?'

* * *

I'm not too happy with this chapter but I think after redoing the same text 5 times and this was the best one... yeah....

OMG thank you for the reviews and alerts! (let's see if I don't blow this) And I haven't read/seen Ghost hunt in a looong time so sorry if I make someone too much ooc (I'm pretty sure I put Naru at least one time ooc ahaha)

So yeah... be nice and **review**~


	4. Memories and Golems

Before the story you might want to know this. Just in case:

----POV---- --- change of POV

Like this ---- memories

**Like this ----** calling with a phone or the like

* * *

_**Memories and Golems**_

----^^ John Brown ^^----

The blond priest walked through the halls of the church that he had been asked to take care until another priest was chosen since the last one died. He was deep in thought because he never thought that he would hear those words again, much less from Mai.

A memory appeared.

John was fifteen and was walking to the library. He was still a priest in training at that time. Between the way, there was a conference room where, in that moment, priests of great importance were talking about something that average priests didn't know. When he passed In front of the door though, he accidently heard three words "… the Black Order…" He didn't stop but those words were stuck on his mind. 

He reached the library and, instead of looking for his original target, he looked for the name Black Order. He looked for ten whole minutes but it was no use. This library didn't have anything about that. He sighed in disappointment.

"What are you looking for, John?" the old, soft voice made him turn to one of the most important person and priest of that area. A gentle smile was on the old man's lips.

He didn't want to admit that he heard something he shouldn't have but the curiosity took the best of him. He watched the floor as he answered the priest "I'm looking for information about some Black Order sir." When he heard nothing he looked up. The older man's face turned tense.

"Where have you heard of this?" his voice had nervousness. "I-I accidently heard it when I was passing by the conference room sir. Please forgive me." John had never seen the priest like this and that made him have a bad feeling. "John." He looked at the man's eyes. "Listen. Never, ever say that name again. This is a taboo word around here. Do what I say and forget that name. You never heard it alright?!" Seeing the pleading look on the man's eyes he could only nod.

The blond priest stopped and bit his lip remembering the shock he had when he heard Mai saying those words.

"**Ah I see. So you can't come…"**

"**Yes, I'm sorry Mai-san."**

"**It's no problem…" **a moment of silence **"John-san… have you heard of the Black Order?"**

His hands grabbed the phone tighter.** "The Black Order? Mai-san what does this have to do with that job?"**

"**W-well it seems we are going to the headquarters or something."**

He bit his lip.** "I'll go to you when I can alright Mai-san?"**

"**O-okay…"**

John sighed as he reached a door. As he opened it, the smell of candles was in the air and he walked to the coffin in the middle of the room. Earlier that day the room was full of people now, it was only him and the corpse of an old important priest that had a soft voice and gentle smile.

----3Lavi 3----

Lavi watched the group in front of him with the calculating look of a bookman. 'These are not the usual type of people that come here.' Almost everyone had a backpack and another bag though, the one with black hair and blue eyes also had some books (and had no backpack. It probably was one of the back packs the other had). 'Why do they seem familiar?' He tried to get closer but the girl with the Kimono suddenly turned. If it wasn't for his sharp reflexes he would have been seen. 'So that girl can see and feel spirits.' He watched again though, this time more detailed. Everyone in that group was somehow different. The blond one and the woman beside him had some spiritual power. The taller black haired ('Isn't he Chinese?') had something surrounding him. The one with the books seemed to have some power too. And the last one, the brown haired girl, also had some sort of presence around her.

'Well, better tell them about this group.' He walked through the wall 'This is fun!' the red hair grinned but that disappeared when he recalled that a certain someone had the power to do this at will. Sure gave them a problem.

He walked through the familiar halls of the gothic building. It was their home even if nobody lived there anymore. Dust and cobwebs appeared as the years passed but they didn't mind. It isn't as if there would be anything they could do about that. He stopped at the familiar door. He passed through it and grinned when he saw the only two people that, like the red haired boy, were waiting for _him_. It had been a promise after all.

Lavi called them "Hey Lenalee-chan, Yuu-chan~. We have more company~"

----O.O SPR gang O.O----

Mai walked beside Bou-san, biting her lip, still feeling someone or something watching her. The atmosphere didn't help one bit too. After the initial observation and shock, you could easily see the dust on the floor and cobwebs hanging on the ceiling. The building was originally dark and that made the atmosphere creepier. All these elements plus what the famous medium said and the silence, weren't really reassuring.

She stopped. The monk looked at her "What's wrong?" the girl didn't answer immediately "Did you hear something?" the man shook his head "Must have been my imagination…" they restarted their walk though this time making small talk.

Our beloved narcissist stopped in front of a big door and opened it. The room was big and it must have been a cafeteria of some sorts because there were still some tables and chairs in conditions and recognizable and it reminded Mai of her school. 'I guess it's true that people lived here.' She started imagining how it was before being abandoned.

Masako, accompanied by Ayako, checked the room for spirits, Bou-san and Naru were talking between each other and Lin… when did the he take his laptop?

With nothing more to do she decided to see what the bag given by Mr. Hearst had. Two small books (in Japanese), some food, a map ('That's good. My chances of getting lost got smaller'), a thermometer and a ball with… wings? She blinked her eyes several times to make sure but the image was the same. A ball with bat wings and an eye drawn on the body (?). The sixteen year old grabbed the item and let a surprised yelp escape her when the thing started flying. _Flying_.

The rest of the group looked at her and the flying object with curiosity.

"Mai," she turned to Ayako "what _is_ that?" the older woman pointed to the Cyclops like thingy "I-I d-don't know. It was in the bag that Hearst-san gave us and when I grabbed it…" the brunette eyed it.

"Mai, wasn't there anything else?" Naru asked also eying the object with curiosity. The part timer looked through the bag (never leaving the thing outside her vision) and she found two letters. She read the first one (it was, again, in Japanese.)

_To the SPR group;_

_You have probably found the golem and that's why you are reading this. Well the golem, if you're wondering, is the black ball with an eye drawn in his body and bat wings that's probably flying besides the person that grabbed it first._

_Everyone has one. This golem works like a walkie-talkie between all of you and was before used by the Black Order's agents (Finders and Exorcists especially). _

_In the next page you will find the instructions._

_I wish you the best of luck;_

_Hearst John._

…

"This thing… can do that?" Bou-san voiced the question that everyone had as he watched the golem flying near Mai's head.

* * *

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot

And this chapter is done.

Sorry if it has some mistakes but if it has point them out please (And thank you for pointing that one out 凛 () and for the review).

And now, please **review**

**And don't expect another update that early. This month I don't know if I can update again (School work, exams) so...  
**


	5. Checking the tower

Before the story you might want to know this. Just in case:

----POV---- --- change of POV

Like this ---- memories

**Like this ----** calling with a phone or the like

* * *

_**Checking the tower**_

----- Yasuhara Osamu -----

He watched as the computer gave him the sites about the Order. He used Google, Bling, Yahoo! but nothing except removed sites. He scratched his head in frustration. Nothing, there was nothing in the Internet about the Order. No information whatsoever. He restarted the page but, again, nothing. He gave a resigned sigh.

"What are you doing?" a man's voice made itself known behind the university student, giving him a fright and making him _accidently _close the page. "Only some research." The professor looked suspicious but shrugged it off. " You can go now, Osamu-kun."

He nodded and went outside the library. He gave a relieved sigh. 'Good, he didn't notice…'

"**Oh, so you can't come too?" **he heard some disappointment in her voice.

"**Yes. I'm sorry Mai-san but I have a paper to give that day…"**

"**Okay…. Huh?....." **she stopped talking and another voice talked** "Osamu-san?"**

"**Oh! Naru-chan! I am so honored that you talked to me on the phone-"**

His speech was interrupted **"Don't tell anyone about the Order."**

"**Huh? Why-" **the call finished.'Geez…. What a social person….'

Since that day he tried to find some information (in secret of course. The fact that the Naru said something like that means trouble) but found none so, he made a decision 'Tomorrow I'll go to England.'

------- The exorcist trio ------

The Chinese girl watched the group in front of her, surprised to see that everyone had a golem. No, wait. The tall black haired man didn't have one flying near his head like the others. Maybe he didn't want one?

"Sooooo, what do you think of them?" she turned to a grinning Lavi and a scowling Kanda (not that _that_ is new…). She thought a little before answering "They may be difficult to scare…" something told her that they were not normal so she was slightly apprehensive. "Che. Scare them off with Mugen. What's difficult about that?" the Japanese had a hand hovering his sword's handle. She rolled her eyes "They have a medium with them Kanda-kun! They are probably used to strange things already." at that, the red haired teen muttered under his breath "I doubt they had an encounter with a ninja/samurai happy sword handler…"

Music suddenly reached their ears

_This used to be a funhouse.  
But now it's full of evil clowns  
It's time to start the countdown  
I'm gonna burn it down, down, down  
I'm gonna burn it down…._

"Mai. Turn it off." They looked at the brown haired girl doing something to the golem making the music suddenly stop. She had a small blush. Someone might have modified the golems. The black haired and blue eyed teen gave some orders to the girl, the blond man and the medium, since they went somewhere outside the cafeteria after grabbing something. 'Mai-san, Takigawa-san and Hara-san eh….'

Lenalee gave the boys a glance and went after the other trio to see what they would do.

----- with the group of our favorite part timer ^^------

The sixteen year old opened yet another door. The room was like the others with nothing different except a weird (and creepy) painting with a clown. 'Finally something different' She thought as she took the temperature and wrote it on a notebook she had brought. She was going to exit the room when she saw, stuck on a drawer, a small piece of paper. She grabbed and looked more closely. It was a photograph but so old that she could barely see the faces.

It was a group of four. By the outlines there seemed to be a girl with a skirt, with short hair like Masako. One of the others had wild hair and an… eye patch? On the corner a boy/girl (?) with long hair pulled in a pony tail and, there was another one but there were barely any details except the outline of the body. Behind it there was something written with legible letter once. For some reason, that photograph made Mai smile and she put it on her notebook.

She moved to another room, always followed by Bou-san and Masako (who wouldn't stop glaring at her for some reason). The same pattern of rooms as the ones before the other one came. Something about it made her shiver. It was like somebody wanted to make all evidence that people lived here, disappear. To erase it from history forever.

She reached another different room. It was the same basic setting of all the other but this one had a hourglass in full view. She wrote down the temperature of the room and turned her attention to the hourglass with the monk behind her.

He whistled "Now what it this doing here?" The girl cleaned some of the dust on the object. Black petals were at the base except one that was pink. Somehow it seemed that the pink petal glowed. 'Nah. Must be because of the black ones.' The man got closer "Mai, doesn't it seem that the petal is glowing?" maybe it wasn't her imagination "Must be the effect of the light or something…" she whispered exiting the room.

The medium had confusion etched on her idol face when she saw her. "What's wrong?" the brunette inquired. "There's a spirit near…. I think… but it seems to be hiding from us…" "Ah…" There was silence as they walked to the rest of the rooms.

There was a small part in which almost all the doors didn't open and, was it her imagination or was there X's on them? (Lenalee: 'Ahahaha…. Brother's experiments rooms…'--;) The only one that opened was so full of things that they didn't bother entering.

One of the rooms ahead that part, seemed like a library though, that would be strange because the library was next door and there was a bed… they continued until they (finally!) returned to the cafeteria where the miko was treating her nails, Lin writing on the laptop and the favorite narcissist boss of all was reading one of the books Hearst-san gave them.

'Oh sure, while some work, others enjoy themselves' "Here are the results _Naru._" The mentioned one looked at them with a questioning eyebrow. The part timer blinked and turned. Bou-san was smiling sheepishly, grabbing a hourglass. 'How did I not notice him taking the hourglass?' the girl thought. She saw the Chinese man get up as soon as he saw the object and got out of the way when he passed by her.

"Where did you find this?" he asked while he watched with narrowed eyes the possession in his hands. "In one of the rooms. What's wrong?" silence was the monk's answer until Naru stepped in "A curse." The tone that he used was final and nobody asked anymore. For now at least.

A yawn escaped Mai's mouth before she could stifle it. "Well Naru-bou, it seems it's time to go rest! The trip must have tired everyone so where are the rooms?" Houshou said, grinning. The boss marked on a map two rooms bigger than most. "The girls will go to this one and we'll go to this one." Everyone nodded.

Masako was one of the first to get out and, as the monk started moving, he felt something passing really near his neck. He turned but there was nothing. "Is everything alright?" Ayako inquired "Nothing." 'Must have been my imagination'. Of course, Houshou didn't know that a teen was trying to break free from his friends hold to punish him because he entered his room and touched his hourglass.

The girls went into a hallway. Mai, was the last one, and couldn't shake the bad feeling that suddenly appeared. 'I don't like it here.' She heard a sound and turned. A grey cat was sitting quietly and only the tail moved gracefully. She froze. 'Why is there a cat here?' Ayako called her. She glanced at the older woman and returned her attention to the cat. Or at least that was what she wanted but there was no cat anymore. Mai quickly followed the other two with a lot of goose bumps 'And why did it seem like it was staring at _me_?'

* * *

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot.

This chapter didn't want to be written and I'm sorry if it's boring and doesn't make much sense but this was slightly rushed....

Anyway thanks for the reviews and alerts and I hope you'll continue to like it (and reviewing).


	6. Wicked Game

Before the story you might want to know this. Just in case:

-POV- - change of POV

_Like this_ - singing (in this chapter at least)

'thinking'

* * *

W_i_**c**k_**e**__d_ **g**a_m__**e**_

-DGM Trio-_**  
**_

The exorcist trio separated from each other to watch the other group. Kanda and Lavi went to the men's room and Lenalee, to the girl's. Even though they were going to scare them they were curious about the weird group.

The boys entered the room. The golems were on the table and the occupants were talking.

"What's the plan Naru-bou?" the blond asked the teen. "We will find out the place of most of the paranormal activity and exorcise the spirits." Blue eyes turned their attention to the book in his hands. Lavi knew he had seen the book before but he couldn't remember… what would the old panda say? 'He would probably kick me in the face' he answered himself in his mind with some nostalgic humor.

Kanda was glaring at the blond and at the Chinese. The first because he dared touching something that belonged to him and the other because it was touching (probably studying) it. 'Maybe I can start scaring them?' his hand was resting at the handle of his Mugen 'And give them a few souvenirs?' he mentally smirked. Oh yes, he definitely needed to do that.

They stopped musing and watched as the time went by. The living ones, got to bed after awhile. Lavi, being who he is (err… was), grabbed a marker and started drabbling on the monk's face. The samurai rolled his eyes but did nothing except look at the annoying rabbit's art.

Suddenly, they felt a shiver. Both were immediately on guard. "This is too soon…" the red haired whispered, but loud enough so that the raven haired teen could hear. Lenalee appeared at the door, innocence activated, wearing a worried expression. She saw the three sleeping figures and made some wind, succeeding in waking and shocking them. "Come to the girl's room, now!" and then she was gone.

The three SPR members heard this and, without even thinking, jumped from the bed and ran to the girl's room. The exorcists followed them 'For Lenalee to make her presence known to them… damn Noah!'

-?-

She walked in the black, the only light coming from her body. She knew she was asleep and that it was one of those dreams but, something was different. This darkness had an ominous feeling. She continued to walk as she tried to find Naru's look alike. Nothing changed even though she was walking for some time (minutes, hours, who knows) and she was certain there was something wrong but didn't stop.

After some more time of dragging her feet, she stopped at a heart shaped door. It was checkered and had a small crown at the top. Her hand was at the handle but she hesitated. Something bad was beyond this door, she could feel it. Her senses screamed for her to wake up. She ignored it and opened the door. Blackness surrounded her…

-SPR Gang-

The door was flung open as the monk kicked it. Why was the door locked anyway?

Ayako and Masako surrounded the figure in bed. The medium turned her attention to the boys but the miko didn't even glance. Bou-san started to talk with Masako (that tried not to snicker at the drawings on his face) and the boss and assistant tried to locate the girl that woke them up, a search with no results.

They got closer to the sleeping girl and froze. Mai's face was pained and tears were falling. Small whimpers could be heard and she was shivering slightly. Her cheek was red and Naru had the feeling that the miko was involved in that. "Matsuzaki-san, what happened?" she looked at him "We were sleeping when suddenly, I woke up because I heard Mai whimper. I thought it was only a nightmare but Masako said otherwise." She breathed "She said that there was an evil presence and…" she stopped, and returned her attention to the sleeping teen. Naru watched her too. "I tried to wake her up, I even slapped her once but she didn't react, didn't even stir. It's like she's stuck in her sleep and we can't reach her…" the woman whispered "Now there's a barrier repelling us too…"

Houshou, hearing everything, tried to touch the teen's face but something repelled him, making his hand bleed. "I'm guessing we have to wait until she wakes up." The seventeen year old gripped his hands tighter but agreed "And you need to wash your face..." muttered Ayako watching the monk's face.

And so, they waited…

- Mai -

The sixteen year old snapped her eyes open (when had she closed them?). Tears were streaming from her eyes and she was shivering. She saw visions of people. So much blood… Their screams, pleas, tears as they were killed. Sometimes she saw in the third person but some of them it was herself killing them. The pleasure of hearing those screams, making them plea only to say no, savoring the tears as the person's life slowly slipped away, the excitement of breaking a person….

She was going to be sick.

It took her some time to get control of her body again. She blinked several times to stop crying and, only then, did she actually see where she was. The room was surrounded by the familiar blackness of her dreams but, this time, she was sitting on a chair. Her clothes were different too. Her pajama gave place to an intricate dress. It seemed like one of those old dresses from the west. She also had high heeled shoes.

The part timer got up. Now, a voice got her attention. It was barely audible but it seemed to be a child's voice. She went forward (probably) and kicked a small object accidentally. Crouching down, she recognized the object as being a candle. A really pointy candle. She grabbed it. A small flame appeared but, as if grabbing it was a switch, more candles lit up and then she could see the space and she froze at the sight.

It was completely unreal. Broken toys were on the floor everywhere. Boxes, wrapped with birthday paper and even had the ribbon, were in the air, suspended with nothing grabbing them. The candles were the same, floating in mid air. Being shocked was an understatement. The place gave her goosebumps because of its creepiness.

The voice was getting close so she went in that direction, stopping when she saw the back of a girl, maybe twelve or something, wearing a miniskirt, socks, black shoes and a shirt that seemed from the old times. With blue hair and pale hands, the stranger was sitting on top of a box. Mai strained her ears to try to hear her, hiding behind a box near there:

_My new doll  
Have you appeared?  
My new doll  
Are you prepared?_

_The game has begun  
Let me have fun  
Don't break too fast  
Let's make this last!_

(giggle)

_The rules are simple  
You just have to survive!  
As easy as pie  
Don't you think so Mai?_

The teenager froze at this sentence and looked up to the girl again. She was watching her now, golden eyes filled with malicious intent and excitement. The skin was dark (weren't her hands of pale white skin?) and a line of crosses could be seen on her forehead. The girl also had an (apparent) innocent smile on her lips. 'She's creepy' was the first thought the brunette had. But the song wasn't finished.

_There's only one way  
To win this game!  
Find and bring the clown  
as he is the one to blame._

_Don't expect to win though  
Others have been trying  
but the game is too tough  
It has been going for a hundred years!_

_But now run, run  
Don't break too soon  
Let me have my fun  
My new beautiful doll._

_Don't be standing  
Now start running  
do not spoil my mood_

The girl seemed to think "By the way, the name's Road"

Mai just stared. The girl dropped the innocent smile and, an insane glint appeared on her eyes. She started to laugh. As she was laughing, the candles started to move, the pointy part in her direction. She jumped out of the way, surprised that some of the candles were now deep inside the box exactly where she had been some seconds ago. She was moments away of being impaled. Without a glance at the insane girl she started running (after getting out of those shoes). Candles passed millimeters away from her skin.

After awhile, she was getting tired. The dress was cut at some places and she was hurt by some scratches on the legs, arms and she even had one on her neck! She hid behind another box, resting a little. 'This girl… she's having fun!' she felt something hit near her left shoulder and, in panic, noted that she couldn't move.

Road was in front of her, some candles behind her, licking a lollipop. She looked bored and disappointed. "I thought you would last longer" she whined but then a maniacal grin adorned her face "Oh well~ I just have to get my fun from the others now, won't I? The medium girl seems one of those that will scream and plead wonderfully." The teenager could only stare as the kid talked "-Ah, but the one that will be the most fun to break will probably be the blue eyed one. Such a beautiful face. He's the stubborn type isn't he? Maybe seeing as his friends are killed one by one and tor-"

Mai couldn't take it anymore and screamed "STOP!" The Noah looked at her, amusement evident on her face. A slight movement of her finger and a candle went straight to the girl. The sixteen year old was wide eyed, breathing fast and hearing her heart pounding on her ears, as she felt the blood flowing freely from her cheek wound. She was terrified. Road was going to kill her. And this wasn't a normal dream where, if she dies, she will wake up. No, her instincts were telling her that if she dies in this dream, she will be dead forever.

'I need to wake up.' Her mind told her 'wake up, wake up, wake up, WAKE U-' "It's no use." She looked at the grinning face of her torturer "You won't wake up that easily. That wouldn't be fun now would it?" Another candle this time wounding her left arm. She held a scream. It was a lot deeper than the one before. A river of red liquid coursed on her arm and the golden eyed one was delighted. 'Run away… I need to run away…' she gripped her wound with her right hand and glared at the other. The Noah though, narrowed her eyes as she looked into another box showing some people doing something that seemed to irritate her. Using the distraction she ripped the left part of the dress (not that difficult, the dress was cut in that part too) and started to run.

The young psychic knew it was only a matter of time until she was caught again and finished for real but she had to try. The blood flowed freely from the wounds though, a little less than at the beginning. She was still terrified and was starting to feel faint. She heard Road calling her name. The insane ghost (she decided that Road was a ghost. It was the most reasonable answer at least. What else had this power?) was the hunter and she was her prey. The voice was closer now. The cat and mouse game was reaching the end and she definitely didn't like knowing she was the mouse.

She passed a box and was suddenly pulled by someone. A hand covered her mouth and a voice she knew whispered near her ear some words, calming her a little. She looked at the familiar face of Naru's look alike. "Gene…" a sad smile appeared on his handsome face hearing this "Mai, I need you to listen well because I will probably not be able to repeat it okay?" a nod "Mai, I'm going to help you get out of here but after you wake up get out of here immediately. This is a case far too dangerous for you." He bit his lip looking around. The voice was closer and sounded annoyed "If for some reason you can't get out of this tower, you will need to end this game." Her eyes got wide "You need to find the-" a sound too near for comfort "Look, in case you can't get out, talk with the exorcists. They will probably help. And please, don't fall asleep!" the teen grabbed her arms making her flinch. He opened his mouth but a misleading sweet, innocent voice interrupted him "Oh, there you are! Huh? I thought I had you locked up?" the stigmata girl saw the teen and noticed something. The girl was waking up. "So the game will get more interesting eh?" Mai's eyes were heavy and she knew she was waking up.

Before she could wake up she heard a gasp and the smell of copper reached her. It wasn't hers though. It was Gene's.

"Let the last part of the game begin~" And she snapped her eyes open to the real world.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Own nothing except the plot...

And the new chapter is up! Hope you liked it! Oh yeah today was my last test so next, is exams! DX At least it's a big chapter...

If there's any questions about this chapter they are going to be explained further in later chapters... probably... (and the drawing in the face... I wasn't going to put it but when I noticed it was there already ahaha...)

Thanks for the reviews, alerts and favorites...**review** please...


	7. Interlude

**_Interlude_**

"Let the last part of the game begin!" Road said as Mai disappeared from her realm.

Then, the Noah, walked to the bleeding teenager, whom clutched his shoulder in pain the moment the girl disappeared, and scolded "I thought I told you for you to stay put. Though I'm surprised that a human escaped that prison…" she trailed off and grabbed his chin, making him look at her in the eyes "Oh well, you aren't exactly a normal human, are you? Even though you are now dead, you already had some powers when you were alive…didn't you?" he said nothing but the girl could see it in his blue eyes. She smirked 'Really do all twins have a mental bond?' she questioned herself mentally. She pulled back and trapped him in a dice like prison with transparent walls.

The teen glared at the girl and he opened his mouth to say something but only gasped in pain "I would stop that bleeding or you will die… again. And that wouldn't be fun now would it~" She let her voice carry some of her amusement. Pain it's a fitting punishment for a person who interrupted her fun. She turned and walked away but not without saying "I have something to do now~. When I come back let's play a little more~" The teen only glared.

Road skipped until she was out of sight and made a door. She opened it and her eyes easily spotted the white haired teen in the labyrinth. Not that it was hard. The only light there came from him making it almost impossible to see the walls. Shadows tried to grab him but a green light scared them away. For now. She saw, by the corner of her eyes, a figure watching him. She couldn't tell who it was but it didn't matter. Even if by some luck he found the exit it's impossible for him to get out of there.

She stayed where she was and watched the boy walk. Allen tripped in one of the shadows but continued walking through the corridors with a determined face though, in his eyes, she saw some fear behind the determination. Her face didn't let anyone see what she was thinking.

'It's almost time…' she thought, seeing the shadows trying to grab, once again, the boy.

_Oh my little doll clown  
The dusk is coming did you know  
Will you survive until the dawn  
or will the darkness bring you down?_

The words escaped her lips loud enough for all the exorcists to hear.

_When the countdown ends  
Your light will fade  
You won't ever see your friends  
That's how this play will end…_

She turned and closed the door behind her but not before she saw Allen stop and glare a wall.

Road walked to Gene, letting the checkered door disappear. The true door was in another place and the only way to affect _that_ particular dimension was to enter through it. She frowned as she was reminded of some things. Now she needed to play with her new doll to relieve stress. With a smile she appeared before him "Now, what shall we play?"

-John Brown and Yasuhara Osamu-

The priest read the small book in his hands, ignoring everything around him. He was so focused in the book that he did not notice the other young man that appeared behind him. The person tried reading above the other's shoulder but gave up and talked "Ne, Brown-san, what are you so intent on reading?" John jumped in surprise and turned "Osamu-san! I thought you were already here?" the university student shook his head. "Nope. So what are you reading, if you don't mind telling me…" the blond one sighed "It's a tale someone gave to me." The other said nothing more as he called a taxi.

They entered the car and said their destiny (the man frowned when he saw how far it was from there), being silent most of the trip. "So," Yasuhara broke the silence "what type of tale is it?" a shrug from the blond "It's about a boy… here" he gave the book "You can read it." 'I still wonder why did the priest give me this as his last will…'

The student grabbed the book (noting how thin and small it was) and read it. Well, tried his best seeing as it was all in English and needed some translations from John. Not counting with the small translation questions, the rest of the journey continued in silence.

They reached their destiny when he was in the part of the yellow creature leading the others to save the boy from imprisonment. It was kind of interesting this so called 'Tale of God's Clown'. Yasuhara closed the book and got out, paying the taxi driver ('I hope Naru-chan refunds my money…' he thought seeing how much money it cost). He gave the book back to the priest but not without seeing the name of the author. 'Komu…rin?'

"I'm sorry but are you with the SPR?" they turned to the man that questioned them "Yes we are." John answered "My name is John Brown, in the English way at least…" he trailed off "And this is Yasuhara Osamu." They shook hands and the man presented himself "I'm John Hearst."

* * *

Disclaimer: Don't own DGM nor GH.

I'm so sorry if this chapter isn't really good but I was in a worry... and I couldn't think of a title so it's interlude... and the reason why it's short is because this was actually sopposed to be in the last chapter...

I just noticed that today is the 60th day since I updated this story... I'm also sorry for not updating earlier...

I thank all of those that reviewed and those that favorited and/or alerted.

Oh yeah I talk about a tale here... I actually wrote it (in pure boredom) and I was wondering if I should put it here... probably not it's basically the DGM storyline with some obvious changes for a reason I won't tell...

Please review.


	8. Author note! Important

**I'm so sorry but this isn't an update. It's important that authors know about this so I'm posting this right here. I'm going to give the head ups that I will (probably) continue to update the stories but, just in case, I've made an account at livejournal to post my fanfiction stories. Oh and DeviantArt too (Just look for Morfanerina in both though, both links will be posted in my profile).**

**I do not agree of what they are doing though.**

**!Important!**

I heard about Redbotton (a program that may get my stories and maybe your stories deleted from FanFiction .net)…

Please read this article I copied off from Civil Initiative .com... If I get in trouble for posting this then so be it, but I feel all readers should know the facts… It's their RIGHT…

Friday, August 27, 2010

The RedBotton Issue and what it means for FFNet

As some may have noticed there has recently been a mass reporting of stories on FFNet that are being made by a person known as RedBootton. The administration of the site has been made aware of a disturbing revelation about this account.

RedBootton is actually a program that was designed by Lord Kelvin and is used by various members of Literate Union. Redbootton appears to be capable of accessing Ffnet and searching stories or summaries for either key words or patterns of grammar and then creating a list of the stories that are "in violation of ToS" it then mass reports these stories until the stories are either removed by the author or mods. The members of LU don't even scan over the list before executing the report portion of the program.

The list itself is generated in a matter of minutes.

The idea is to go through each fandom systematically and clean house until Lord Kelvin can finish the touches on the site wide program. After each fandom is cleaned it will then be used to scan all new stories being posted.

This is a serious violation of the ToS on FFNet  
_4. General Use of the Website  
hereby grants you permission to access and use the Website as set forth in these Terms of Service, provided that:  
A. You agree not to distribute in any medium any part of the Website, including but not limited to User Submissions (defined below), without 's prior written authorization.  
B. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Website.  
C. You agree not to access User Submissions (defined below) or Content through any technology or means other than the Website itself.  
E. You agree not to use or launch any automated system, including without limitation, "robots," "spiders," or "offline readers," that accesses the Website in a manner that sends more request messages to the servers in a given period of time than a human can reasonably produce in the same period by using a conventional on-line web browser. Notwithstanding the foregoing, grants the operators of public search engines permission to use spiders to copy materials from the site for the sole purpose of and solely to the extent necessary for creating publicly available searchable indices of the materials, but not caches or archives of such materials. reserves the right to revoke these exceptions either generally or in specific cases. You agree not to collect or harvest any personally identifiable information, including account names, from the Website, nor to use the communication systems provided by the Website (e.g. comments, email) for any commercial solicitation purposes. You agree not to solicit, for commercial purposes, any users of the Website with respect to their User Submissions. _

What is disturbing about this issue is that many false positives are given, and stories that are not in violation are being reported. The administration of FFNET have been made aware of this issue, but even after repeated e-mails they seem to be either indifferent or actually support the use of this program by Literate Union.

What follows is what is known about RedBootton and how this one simple program could easily impact the site and why every one should be angry that the administration as remained silent about this issue.

(RB) is a program that accesses and systematically searches for and reports stories that it flags as in violation of ToS.  
program is not perfect and has had false hits, resulting in stories with the inclusion of a header formatted in the following manner as being reported for script format even when the rest of the story is in actual story paragraph form.  
Rating:  
Pairing:  
Summery:  
Authors Note:  
no long reads or even checks over the stories that are flagged by RB before hitting the report function.  
advanced form of the program that is available to trusted members that includes a search function for typo's and grammar. This could result in a 10,000+ word stories that may have a few typo's or stories that have characters that may have dialog that is grammatically incorrect as being reported.  
is a beta version that will have the ability to search for MA stories. This search function is based upon the flagging of certain words within the text. A story that may have a rooster referred to as a cock or a cat being called a pussy could easily be flagged and reported as MA.  
6.A Beta version of the advanced program will have the capability to "clean house" site wide, including scanning any stories as they are being posted.

For those who think that is fiction I give you links to the Literate Union Forum.

.net/topic/61196/30589812/1/

In this thread is where Lord Kelvin talks about and includes links to where this program can be downloaded for general use. At one point LK even states _"Specific words/phrases are rated MA automatically because they are only present in stories with paraphilia."_

.net/topic/61196/30532995/38/#30685587

In this thread there is more talk about both RB and how to use it.

Over the past week multiple emails were sent to the admin and mods of FFNet with no answer. Although it is possible that with a site as large as FFNet that they have yet to find time to address this issue, I find myself leaning more to the belief that they just don't care. Since the site seems unwilling or unable to handle this issue there is only one solution.

That is to leave FFNet. Writers should remove their stories and find alternative sites for posting them. Readers to stop visiting. Perhaps then and only then will this issue be seen as important by the owner.

Personally I would rather fight then flee

-'-

**I'm, once again, sorry for the Author notes. This information was given in already two (that I read) stories and I thought that I should do this too.**

**Please pass the information in your own stories and decide what you want to do then. By the way in the guidelines they say that they do not filter the stories (right at the begining).  
**


	9. Contact

_**Contact**_

Mai snapped her eyes open and tried to get rid of the covers she was trapped in but stopped short at the pain she felt throughout her body. She could almost swear that she ran the marathon by her poor leg muscles 'Running away from a crazy girl in a dream world can also be the reason' she mused, drily. Vaguely she registered her body was shaking, her eyes felt moist, she was in fetal position and that her cheek and arm were bleeding.

A feather like touch and her name being called snapped her from her musing. The part-timer turned her head and saw the worried faces of, first Ayako, and then Bou-san and Masako. Before she knew what she was doing, she found herself clinging to Ayako (she was the closest) and crying her heart out. She ignored the protests of her muscles this time.

It took some time for the sixteen year old pull herself together and, by that time, Naru and Lin had already came back and brought tea for her. It helped somewhat.

The miko started to treat the cuts and there was a thick silence in the air. The brunette didn't look at anyone in the eyes, opting to stare at the cup of tea in her hands, trying to organize her thoughts (not thinking about the murders she saw - she already calmed down no need to restart crying).

The older woman frowned as she cleaned the cuts. The one on the cheek, if well treated, wouldn't scar, thankfully, and the one in the arm probably wouldn't too but, whatever had done those cuts, was sharp in the very least. She easily spotted smaller cuts on the younger girl's body. They didn't need any treatment for they were shallow but the one in the neck made her frown even more deeply. It was as if someone had been throwing knives at the teen - thankfully not managing to give a fatal wound.

-?-

"The girl woke up. Sane apparently." Lenalee informed them as she stepped in the room, relief obvious.

"Lucky girl, isn't she?" said Lavi with a whistle "Well that is, if you don't count the fact that she was that Noah target and probably will need a psychologist for a long time."

Kanda rolled his eyes "So that means they'll go away now."

The only girl nodded but the redhead gave a mock sigh "And here I thought I could show my abilities."

"Oh, doodling on that blond man's face doesn't count?"

"Lena-lady, you should know by now that there is much more creativity in me that needs to be…. Released." The girl only gave him a look while Kanda snorted.

- GH gang-

No one said nothing during the time she was silent, giving her some space to recollect. At last, she told them what she dreamed -deciding to omit the murders part- hesitating on how to say what happened little before she woke up.

Raising an eyebrow at her hesitation, Naru was -not that he would show it externally- extremely worried about the mentality of his worker. He had a feeling who this Road character was, if the small notebook he read was anything to go with. Not good news that's for sure.

Mai sighed and looked into the blue eyes of her boss. It was all he needed to know that something was very, very wrong and, despite himself, he shivered. The sentence she said only confirmed it:

"Gene was captured a-and he was bleeding when I woke u-up."

Everyone tensed with the same question on their minds 'What?'

- John and Yasuhara-

"What?" asked Yasuhara. Both the SPR associates wanted to make sure that they heard right.

John Hearst had been explaining some things about the tower while making some tea. As they drank their tea, they had questioned the man on how to get inside the tower but the answer had not been what they were expected.

A sigh came from Hearst "It is as I am telling you. The boats that connected to the inside of the tower were all in pieces when I checked the place. Broken beyond repair. That was the only available entrance that we know of - excluding the door of the tower but, for that, you will need to climb it - and the only means of transport for it were destroyed."

"Couldn't we use rubber boats?"

The man looked at the one with the same first name and shook his head "I'm sorry. The rocks and even the water force would have ripped it. These waters are a danger if you are not careful."

"Then what could we do?" Yasuhara absently looked at the now cold tea.

"There is a way to communicate. The golems should be activated by now…" the man got up and, followed by two pairs of eyes, walked to a small chest. He opened and grabbed the object, taking it to the table. "Here it is. If they have them activated, you can call them." The bat like golem took flight and, for a few seconds, they could only hear static.

As they started to get worried, a familiar voice came through, making them slump on the chairs in relief.

"er… hello?"

- With Bou-san & company -

After Mai's revelation everyone decided that it could be dangerous for the girl to continue there. Even more so when Naru voiced his suspicions of what that… Road could really do, if the wounds on her body were anything to go by. The girl stubornly held her ground in staying there. She couldn't just leave Gene alone! Eventually, they managed to persuade her with promises of regular contact and all.

Ayako, Lin and Naru went to prepare the small boat while Masako and he kept an eyes in the part-timer. The girl really attracted problems didn't she?

When he was talking to her however, the bat like object next to him started to vibrate. Remembering it meant he was receiving a call as if it was a cell phone (A/N: or mobile phone. Whichever you want), he answered it "Er… hello?"

The golem got away from his hands and flew near his head.

"Bou-san?" the slightly filled static voice made him grin. Mai and the medium also turned their attention to the golem.

"Yasuhara-san…"

"Mai-san? Are you alright? Are the others ok too?" John's Kyoto dialect was heard.

The monk decided to interrupt "And John's there too? Where are you?"

The static crackled a bit more but they ignored it "We are in John Hearst's house. What is happening there?"

"Nothing serious. Will you two come here?" the blond man frown when the static got stronger again. The girls shared a look before refocusing on the golem.

"W…t…. can't…yo-" the golem went silent.

"This isn't good." Murmured the only guy there.

"Something's near." Said Masako tensely.

A giggle sounded "So, are these two new players too?"

They focused on where the voice came from.

The golem.

- John & Yasuhara -

The golem stayed dead no matter what any of them did and the silence was getting to both of the SPR assistants.

A small sound of the object's speakers sounded, along with a young voice "So, are these two new players too?"

"Who-" started Brown.

"Are you?" the voice seemed a little impatient and at the same time curious.

Hearst watched the scene mute as Yasuhara and John locked gazes, nodded and replied "Yes."

- SPR group-

They heard the answer but the golem went dead. Again.

Worry for their companions formed.

The door suddenly opened along with the trio. By their faces there weren't good news.

Broken to pieces…" the part-timer, medium and monk blinked and the miko, seeing their confusion, elaborated "Both the boats we took with us are broken to pieces."

"You're kidding…" the sigh from the older woman made their hopes of being pranked crumble.

- DGM -

The not-so-alive trio looked at each other.

"It seems they can't get out." She whispered.

An unusually serious voice from the redhead sounded "This is only going to end when we find him. They are stuck now."

"Che. They can't even go away right."

"Let's go greet our guests shall we?" Lavi reverted back to his happy self and took the initiative by walking in the other group direction.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Only own the idea. The characters (except John Hearst. He's mine!) all belong to their respective owners.

I'm so SORRY for not updating earlier! This has been left alone in *looks at last update date* about 3 MONTHS!

I have reasons! I never knew highschool could be such a time eater. Just today I had four tests. FOUR! (ok so I didn't study for two of them but still...) And I've been in a writer's block ever since the last not-so-real update. And I still don't like this chapter!

Ok enough of reasons. I'm tired and going to sleep. Once again I'm really sorry for not updating for so long, I'll _try_ to update soon.

Please review.


	10. Meeting

**_Meeting_**

"Are you sure this is wise? It may not be true and, even if it is, it must be a trap!" Hearst said to the other two, walking to the small entrance of the tower, doubt obvious in his voice.

"We can't leave them alone like this. It's our best choice, why not take it?" Yasuhara asked while fixing a backpack to distribute its weight more evenly. John Brown also had one and, Inside, there were some things they bought including some food and torches along with a modified golem and, in John's case, his priest things and the small book with the tale. They weren't light weights.

Their guide only sighed, knowing that nothing he could say would make them give up.

They soon reached the entrance and Hearst could only gape at the boat that was waiting for them. Yasuhara narrowed his eyes at the broken pieces on the surrounding area, giving an ominous feeling.

"I guess it's true…"

"_Yes." The voice giggled again._

"_So transport for two né? All taken care of. Hope you have a nice trip."_

"_Wait" the blond John started "where is that transport?"_

"_Why, isn't it obvious? By the only entrance you _humans_ have used this last century. Anymore questions?"_

"_What game?" Both John's looked at Yasuhara. They didn't even thought about it._

_There was silence and they feared the girl had disconnected until she answered "Ask Mai-chan when you get here. She knows."_

_The voice went silent, static being the only sound coming from the golem._

- SPR-

The part timer pocked the food on her plate uninterestingly, mind straying from reality, thinking of the events until that point.

They received a job, travelled to England to a small town/village, entered a tower that, apparently, was the headquarters of a supernatural Order (that is if the names Akuma and Exorcist meant anything). Then, she had a freaky dream (well, freakier than the usual 'job dreams') in which she met a creepy little girl that wished to kill her and 'invited' her to play a game and _then_, she was saved by Gene, who was actually being made prisoner, that helped her wake up with only some wounds and some psychological scars. What did she miss?

'Right, the fact that now we can´t get away in any case?' The bright side of this thought was that she now could help Gene. The worst part was that now they couldn't retreat on any case. They were stuck. She sighed, oblivious to the glances the others stole.

The brunette stopped playing with her food and got up, excusing herself from the table. Someone followed her but she didn't comment, opting to walk to the closest window and looking outside, thankful for the opportunity of fresh air.

"Mai, are you alright?" the self appointed miko asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I just don't feel like eating much…" she decided not to go on detail of the reason and Ayako didn't pursue it.

As both watched the scenery go by, the youngest fingered the charm in her pocket, appreciating the comfortable silence. Well, until it was broken to pieces by an unfamiliar voice.

"What are two beautiful ladies doing alone on a place like this?"

The 'ladies' turned in surprise, ready to chant something to protect themselves. The person who spoke had his hands in the air the moment he saw their suspicious eyes land on him.

"Whoa! I'm not going to do anything!" The person was a young red headed man, with a bright green eye (the other was covered by an eyepatch as if he was a pirate). A bandanna held his hair in the air. His clothes were black but two things caught the SPR members attention: one was the small hammer on his belt that had an almost imperceptible glowing green cross; the second was the Rose Cross sewn in the jacket, above his heart.

"An exorcist?"

-John Brown & Yasuhara -

The journey was uneventful. There was the occasional bump that shook the boat but nothing more. They reached the small dock fast.

"I suppose this is the entrance…" muttered Yasuhara, eyes studying his surroundings. John nodded while grabbing his rucksack, and carefully got out of the boat. Nothing happened the next minutes so they relaxed a little.

"It seems there's nothing here…" the blond one whispered.

"Che. More idiots?" Yasuhara and John jumped in surprise and looked around, searching for the owner of the annoyed voice. "Che." Before the pair a young man suddenly appeared, his dark blue eyes glaring at them. He seemed Japanese with his long hair in a high ponytail. He was wearing what seemed to be an uniform, a katana secure on a belt. A Rose Cross was visible, sewn in the jacket, right above his heart.

The priest was tense, ready for an attack. The university student was the one to ask "Who are you?"

The spirit regarded them silently and che'ed before saying something else that was not the answer "Are you with the other idiots?"

"Do you mean Naru-san and the others?"

"Che. Seems you'll be coming either way…" the annoyed mutter was barely audible and both SPR member glanced at each other in confusion until they noticed the exorcist was looking beyond them. They turned and could only stare as the boat they travelled with _melted,_ slowly mingling with the water.

"Che."

- Naru and the rest -

They all watched worriedly as Mai and Ayako got out of the cafeteria… or now known as base. They finished their food in silence.

After the meal Lin was on the laptop, the hourglass near him, Naru was reading one of the books Hearst gave him, Bou-san glanced every now and then at the door and Masako sat quietly, trying to locate the spirits.

The medium snapped her eyes open and got up unexpectedly, attracting the attention of all.

The girl stared at an empty space for a few seconds "Who are you?" the others were quiet and alert by then. The teenager blinked, confusion on her face when, apparently, she received an answer.

In a blink of eyes, another girl appeared. At first, she was see through but, eventually, they could almost swear she was alive and corporeal.

The girl in question seemed Chinese and slightly older than Masako herself, if not the same age. Her raven - with a tint of green- hair reached her chin and violet eyes watched them, amused by their reaction. She was wearing a type of uniform with a jacket and shorts and she was using black boots until the knees. A butterfly was at each heel and an almost impossible to distinguish green glow came from a cross in front of each boot. Sewn in the jacket, above her heart, was a Rose Cross.

She smiled softly "Hello."

Naru narrowed his eyes and nodded in acknowledgement of the greeting.

"Are you an exorcist?" Bou-san asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to make sure.

"Yes. You are Takigawa-san, right?" at the nod received she said the name of the rest, ending on Naru, satisfied she got their names correctly.

A frown appeared on her face "Where are those two?" she whispered.

"I'm here Lena-lady, along with Mai-chan and Aya-chan!" they turned to the pirate wannabe who had just entered the room, followed by the two girls. "Where's Yuu-chan?"

A sword met his neck, the cold metal barely touching the skin "Don't call me that baka Usagi!"

The spectators stared at the trio until someone entered the room "Whoa, now that's a reunion." Everyone turned to him and Mai smiled and greeted him and the other that followed "Yasuhara-kun! John-san!"

"You need to get better guides for this place. Ours was a little grumpy." The university student grinned while saying that though, he wisely shut up when a certain death glare was directed at him.

"That's Yuu-chan for you! Yikes!" while the read head ran from his friend's sword, John couldn't help but comment "Aren't they lively?"

"Don't you see the irony in that statement?" Monk remarked, sweat dropping at the scene.

"Don't mind them, this is daily stuff." The Chinese girl informed. 'Right…' the rest sweat dropped again.

"How did you come Osamu-san, Brown-san?" Naru inquired them, keeping an eye on the exorcists.

"By boat but, we won't be able to use it again…" the blond priest trailed off. Naru's eyebrow rose up in a questioning manner. His silent question was answered by the Japanese spirit with a scoff and then the actual reply "The boat melted."

"Say what?" Ayako blurted before she could stop herself. The ghost gave her a glare.

"Well, that's a new trick…" said Lavi "How about we introduce ourselves! I'm Lavi, the grumpy samurai over there is Yuu Kanda - Kanda if you're not used to deal with him and his sword - and the lovely girl here is Lenalee Lee! Oh, this is the occidental way."

"You don't have a surname Lavi-san?" the brunette pointed out. The boy only grinned.

"Why have you shown yourselves? You have been avoiding us yesterday." Masako looked at them intently.

"_That_ was when we were thinking of scaring you for you to get out of the tower. As you can see, that is _kinda_ difficult right now for you." the spokesman (Lavi) told them. "And maybe we could help each other seeing you are, well, stuck here and aren't going to get out of here if we don't finish the… _game." _he was gazing at Mai when he said the last word, a dead serious (no pun intended) expression on his face.

"Great, mind telling what game is this? A girl decided to say that we were participants too."

They turned to Yasuhara "You talked with Road?" Lenalee asked.

"Er… yes."

"That's a new one…" she muttered. Speaking louder "This game… it started as a promise between us three and a fourth. The girl you talked with" at this she gave a look at Mai, John and Yasuhara "decided to play hide and seek with our friend as a… hostage. Well, that's the very short version at least."

"..This girl, Road… is she a Noah?" the exorcists tensed and looked at Naru, expressions carefully unreadable.

"Why do you say that?" Lavi asked, all traces of the joking personality they met gone.

"In this book" the SPR boss explained, showing the book he had been reading "there's the presence of a family called the Noah, enemies of the Black Order. Each person had a power. Road is one of them. The Noah of dreams..."

They all blinked and suddenly Lavi was beside Naru, the book on his hands. A smile stretched in his face, the joking persona back "I knew I had seen this book somewhere! It's old panda's notes."

"'Old panda's'?"

"Yes Mai-chan. Bookman's nickname." 'Never thought of it but I really miss the kicks he gave me…'

"What relation did you have with him?" Lin questioned, curious. The Bookman clan had disappeared, discredited by many people. Nowadays, anything by Bookman - the rare surviving copies - were considered some of the best stories ever written.

"Che, Baka Usagi was his apprentice."

"Is that so…" Bou-san doubt was obvious.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except the plot... and John Hearst.

This is my Christmas present for those who reviewed, alerted, favorited and, everyone who read this~

Merry Christmas~

Please review ^-^


	11. History lesson time

_**History **__lesson _and **information**

After the revelation of Lavi being a Bookman's apprentice, Naru pressured him to explain more about the danger they were all in and what the Order really was. The redhead frowned, not really wanting to say what could happen but knowing they needed to know it. In the end, he decided to tell the abridged version of what they knew - there was no need to tell what they experienced.

The story of the Noah easily fell from his mouth and he smoothly and precisely moved over to the war and the Order, omitting the more_ extreme_ and gory parts of history, and told them the basics of what was innocence and the Akuma. _For now_, that was all they needed to know.

When he explained about the ingredients to make Akuma's , the monk questioned him. "Wait, what happened to those who called them back?"

The exorcist's eyes darkened "They died." he stated simply and continued. The SPR group - minus Naru and Lin that had read it in the notes - accepted this and didn't ask the other question that was gnawing at their minds '_How_ did they die?'

When the History lesson ended, there was silence as the group assimilated all the new information. A war no one really knew about. A war where they were certain died hundreds. A war that lasted for too many years.

And these teens, who weren't that much older than Mai when they died, fought it.

What had they gotten themselves into?

"So," Yasuhara started, cutting the silence "we have a religious war that lasted for lots of years, deadly machines which were controlled by a not-so-really-human, whose 'family' members considered themselves superiors because they had the memories and the powers from the original Noahs… and this girl, Road, is the Noah of dreams, who can mess pretty bad a person's mind. And she wants us to play a game."

They blinked at him "Yeah, that pretty much sums it all up. In Road's realm your spirit is as corporeal as your body so every injury gained there, will come here." Lavi grinned at them "So now you know you got yourselves deep in a mess."

Yasuhara turned to John "And you knew nothing of this?" the blond priest shook his head.

Kanda scoffed "As if they would say anything…" curious looks were sent his way but he ignored them, scowl going deeper.

"Well, how about we stop talking about the past and start to inform you of the game you got yourselves into?" Lenalee said and they decided to go along with the subject change. "Basically we need to find our friend. However Road hid him and there's a time limit." 'That is too close for comfort' she thought "We have ran through every inch of this tower and we found no clue of his presence. We have our suspicions that Road's realm has something to do with this but whenever we manage to enter her world, we don't find anything."

"Couldn't she be lying? Maybe your friend has already passed over." John questioned.

She shook her head and Lavi replied "Nah, Moyashi-chan wouldn't do that. It's not his way of doing things. Besides, we know she has him but not where." He glanced at Mai, noticing how she seemed to be in deep thought and how she absently fingered her arm's bandage. "Of course now we need to save him and your friend."

There was some seconds of silence.

" … how did you know that? I mean, none of us said anything…" Masako looked at him confused. That she knew of, they hadn't talked about this with them.

The pirate wannabe gave a mischievous grin "Do you really want to know?" which was promptly answered, very bluntly, by Kanda "He eavesdropped."

"Yuu-chan!" Lavi whined, ignoring the glare sent his way and the warning growl.

"I didn't feel anything…" the medium whispered, her kimono's sleeve muffling her voice. The redhead gave another grin but said nothing else.

"Anymore questions?" the SPR boss turned to the girl exorcist "Yes. You said innocence took many forms right?" she nodded "What's yours?"

"Mine are these boots." She replied.

"Those boots? What can one do with those?" the Chinese girl turned to the monk, a small smirk on her lips. Lavi muttered "If you only knew…"

"Well, I can kick you with enough strength so that you could fly for some miles, I can run really fast, or…" she suddenly made a kick in the middle of the air and wind went strong against their face "make wind."

"You forgot being like steel and using the gravity~" commented the redhead. The girl shrugged "Can't say everything." She smiled at the monk "Did I answer your question?"

"Y-yeah." Bou-san looked at the boots with a newfound respect and turned his attention to the pirate wannabe "Do I want to know yours?"

"Mine is… this!" Lavi whipped out his hammer and showed it with exaggerated pose. The SPR group stared, not understanding what that did.

"er… okay. You hammered them?" Yasuhara tried to imagine it but… the hammer was so small.

"Why yes! What would a hammer do, spoon them?" the redhead joked. He whispered some words the others didn't hear and his hammer grew above everyone's head.

"Oh… well, I guess this would work…" the university student whispered.

"It's also an awesome transportation method!"

There was silence after that statement.

"Say what?" Bou-san blurted out after awhile.

"We-" Lavi was interrupted by his foot being stepped on 'accidentally' "Don't worry about it. It would traumatize you if you tried." Lenalee smiled at the baffled bunch "Besides there's no space to try it out."

"Couldn't we use it to get out of here?" Ayako pointed out.

"We are limited to this tower. Nothing more, nothing less. We also thought that Road had that restriction but…" Lenalee trailed off.

"Couldn't she have hidden your friend outside the tower?" the exorcists cringed at the question Lin made.

"We sure hope not…" muttered Lavi and Lenalee at the same time.

The tension on the air was cut when Yasuhara's stomach decided to announce its existence, making its owner to smile sheepishly. "Anyone else hungry?" His answer was the approval of some stomachs. "You wouldn't want to try to eat by the way?" he asked to the exorcist trio, who shook their heads, looking amused (well, not Kanda).

They stayed there, watching them eat. The girl sighed "How I remember when this was full…"

"Good times, good times…" Lavi supported. Kanda made a sound only his two companions recognized as acknowledgement of the fact.

They started to chat with the other group about different subjects. Lavi, after awhile, turned to the silent brunette and hopped to her.

"Hey there! Aren't you going to join us Mai-chan?" the sixteen year old jumped "Huh, what?" the spirit tilted his head, his lone green eye calculating "Né, what are you thinking about?"

"How old were you?" he looked at her, not understanding her question. Seeing his look she clarified "When you entered this… war…. How old were you?"

He stayed silent for awhile "Is that the only thing bothering you?"

She said nothing about how he avoided her question "The rooms… there are some that have something but most have nothing as if someone tried to cover someone's else existence…" Mai looked at the hourglass on another table "did the Church try to… erase you from History?"

The pirate wannabe also looked at the lotus hourglass "Let's just say, this was just a tower with too many memories."

She bit her lip and fingered her lucky charm "That's… sad…" he nodded. "That's how it is. Buuuut, how about stopping those thought and join the fun? You'll feel better!" he stuck out his hand, a grin plastered on his face.

With a sigh she accepted it, following the hyperactive bunny, who decided that tugging the samurai's wannabe hair would be a good idea. It gave the rest some laughs but Mai could only revolve around her thoughts of the strange dreams and the encounter with the Noah, just knowing someone would get hurt at the end.

* * *

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot.

Oh God, as it been so long since I last updated? I'm sorry but RL made me busy and this chapter just didn't want to be written. Speaking of chapter sorry, but this is all I got for this one . I swear it's getting harder and harder to write these...

Thank you to all of those that read, favorited and alerted and those who reviewed will get a cyber cookie 8D (no kill me and you get a cookie that is xD).

Btw, blame the stupid error that appeared everytime I tried to update for the last 3 days . If you have that problem (error 2) change 'property' with 'content' and it will work!

Please review!


	12. Last piece

**_Last piece_**

When he was young, John Hearst loved the stories his grandmother told him about the apparently hopeless war between Humanity and the Demon's. She never told him the end though. As he grew older, he naturally started to think it was only a story.

When his grandmother died, her belongings were given to her relatives and he, himself, received records from bookman and golems. However, those were not the things that convinced him that the war really happened. Some photographs, yellowed by age, were what had convinced him and his best friend, whose grandparents also knew of the hidden history, about the truth of the tower.

Ever since then, both of them had been studying the clues from the random documents the older people from the village had, trying to understand how it ended and why four names were repeated, almost faded from view, as 'trapped'. The pieces had eventually clicked together when they formed the connection with the strange happenings in the tower and what an old man told them "They are waiting, they are. However, trapped he is by the dream demon. How much longer 'till it ends?" (it took a while, as the man wasn't considered the most sane, for them to understand the connection)

So now, a few hours after the two SPR members went to meet their friends, he isn't sure of their decision. He was scared that he had just sent people who would get hurt permanently for nothing and he regretted not telling them everything he knew. Somehow, he naively thought they would manage to end this without a hitch.

He stared blankly at the unmoving golem until the bell rang.

Curious, he got up and opened the door, only to be hugged. He looked down at the one who hugged him, as if it was a normal occurrence "Evangeline? Shouldn't you be working?"

"Nevermind that! How is the SPR group?" she let him go and plopped down on the closest chair.

Hearst sighed "Bad, I think we made a mistake Evangeline."

Evangeline looked at him, concerned "What happened?"

Hearst sat down and told the woman what she missed.

"That sounds bad…" The woman said, worry strongly laced on her voice. It changed suddenly when she remembered something "I have good news though!"

He observed as she grabbed a box from her bag. It had a lock and a key was in it.

"And what is that?"

She gave him a smirk "The last piece of the game."

-Tower-

"So, what we have is that we have to find an entrance to release your friend. But to do that, we first need to enter Road's realm… How do we do that?" Yasuhara asked, having already finished the meal.

"… Ask her?" Bou-san said in face of the silence that followed the question.

"Sure, I'm sure she would be more than happy to give us free entrance to her realm." The miko sarcastically replied. The blond monk glared at her "Do you have a better idea?" he shot back.

".. Maybe it's not that stupid of an idea." Mai interrupted the bickering the pair was, most certainly, going to start. When everyone's attention was on her, she clarified "Of course it's not exactly asking her but maybe challenging her? I mean, she likes games right?..." she trailed off absently fingering her bandage. Truthfully, the last thing she wanted to do was meeting face to face with Road.

"That's a very high cost bet isn't it?" Lavi commented. He was surprised the girl had suggested that. Having experienced firsthand one of Road's games he knew the brunette must not want to meet the sadistic child-looking Noah.

"Maybe if one of you challenged her…" Lenalee couldn't help but glance at the sixteen year old "It isn't impossible…"

Naru narrowed his eyes at the glance, but said nothing about it, choosing to continue with the 'planning' "And when we get in? You said so yourselves. The few times you went there, you didn't find anything."

"That's the more difficult part… we" Lenalee pointed at the exorcist trio "can try to distract her as you try to find a door." She shrugged nervously when she felt their incredulous gazes.

"So we just need to look for a door around her realm? How hard can that be?" Houshou said.

"If you don't know the way, you might get lost monk." a childish voice replied from behind the monk. He turned but saw only air. "what the…"

Ayako gasped and his attention slid to her until he saw a girl in the air, an umbrella beneath her feet.

"Road…" Lenalee and Mai whispered.

"Why hello there exorcists!" the Noah greeted happily, golden eyes glinting with pleasure when they saw them tensing and ready to defend or attack.

"What are you doing here Road?" Lavi narrowed his eye and gripped his hammer tighter.

"I couldn't help overhearing your plans you see." Road smiled sweetly "And they seem fun!" the smile turned into a smirk, the façade dropping "Of course there would be some rules you needed to abide to~"

"And what are those?" our beloved narcissist boss asked, the Noah's attention turning on him.

"Hmm… my doll needs to come." Mai shivered despite herself " Actually everyone needs to be there. You also have to play the hunting game."

The rest gave her confused looks. "What hunting game?" Masako questioned, bringing those inhuman golden eyes to her.

"Don't worry, you just need to… run." The Noah started to laugh, as her candles began to appear. "Two for each human… three for the exorcists~" the candles rushed to their targets.

Everyone dodged. It took a while but, with the help of the exorcists innocence, they managed to smash or cut into little pieces (depending on whose innocence) the candles. No one had gotten seriously injured, the max were some small cuts.

"Those candles are fast!" Yasuhara exclaimed when he noticed that Road had disappeared. "Now how can we go to that… Noah's realm?"

"We wait." Naru said, looking at a wall.

"Say what? We wait for what?" Bou-san asked, helping Mai get on her feet. The girl was pale and he wondered if her wounds before had come from the candles. She had only said sharp things, not candles.

"For her to call us…" Lin answered, seeing what his boss was so interested in.

"How do you know that?" the priest, in turn, was helping Masako and Ayako getting up.

"Che" Kanda glared at the wall "This message is not exactly subtle."

That got the attention of the rest of the Psychic Research group and they looked at the wall, only to gape at the very red writing on it.

'_I'll call you when the play date starts~'_

"I'm not looking forward to this…"

"Yeah… But now there's no turning back Houshou-san." Lenalee informed.

- Hearst & Evangeline-

Hearst eyes widened when he understood the implications of that sentence "You mean…"

"In an antique shop, in Shibuya. It was just luck but I saw it. I'm certain it is it."

"But… it might be too late…"

She glared at him "We don't know that! The least we can do is this…" she turned the key and opened the box. "John… I need you to help me. Your expertise is being called now."

Hearst closed his eyes and took a big breath. "Let's do this then."

- Road's realm-

The Noah of dreams smirked when she saw the caged teen. As she got closer, the wounds on his body became more visible. When she reached the translucent prison she observed her handiwork. The teen had deep wounds, blood covering his torn clothes but, even through all that, he glared at her, blue eyes narrowed and challenging. A small box, kind of like a television, was inside and it showed a certain living group inside the tower.

"Did you like the show?" she questioned in her deceitful voice.

"Why are you letting them enter this realm? Aren't you afraid they'll win the game?"

Road looked amused by the questions "And how will they find the door? They would get lost and besides, how fun would this be, if I couldn't crush their hopes?" she giggling and Gene shivered. 'This girl only thinks of this as fun…'

"While we wait…" she continued, when the giggling subsided "let's play a little more?" Gene glared in response.

- Allen's POV -

The shadows seem stronger. I can feel them wanting to ensnare me and they try to trip me. My innocence sends a green glow, weaker than before but enough to repel the shadows for awhile.

I wonder how long has it been since I was captured. A couple years, a dozen, a hundred? It's difficult to know even though I'm certain it has been longer than any of those.

My hands stop feeling the walls and I know I need to choose whether to go left or right. Again.

I can't believe I'm in a freaking labyrinth! Me, the person who has er.. had the worse sense of direction possible!

For the nth time, I feel into giving to those enticing whispers of giving up. I noticed that I started to give into them a little before continuing.

I shake my head and whisper Mana's words again, inwardly praying for a sign to show me the right way. But of course it doesn't appear.

I sigh and go with my gut again. Heh, here I am, betting. Only this time, if I'm wrong, it's my soul I'm going to lose. And here I thought gambling days were over.

I start walking again, humming a song to myself, thinking of the last time I saw Kanda, Lenalee and Lavi.

When we promised to meet again, Lenalee had given me a hug, Lavi a 'we will have a big meal waiting for you' and Kanda a glare. Ah good days.

Now I wonder, will I break this promise?

-SPR group-

Lavi was observing Mai's key with interest before giving back to her. The brunette looked confused but he just waved her questioning gaze away.

All of a sudden, everyone hears Kanda's less than pleased curses and turn to him.

"Kanda-kun?" Lenalee asked. The samurai wannabe was trying to catch something yellow on his head, making the rest fight against the laugh that threatened to escape them. Kanda finally grabbed the offending object and glared at him.

Lavi, the only one who did not try to hide his amusement, gaped when he recognized the yellow object. "Wait! Isn't that-"

He was interrupted by Lenalee's gasp of surprise "Timcampy?"

Kanda blinked and looked again "Moyashi's golem?"

Timcampy managed to get free and stayed on the air for some seconds until he flew to Lin and plopped down of his head.

The SPR group stared, not knowing what to say.

"You know it?" Ayako inquired the exorcists after some minutes of silence.

"Yes that's Timcampy, our friend's golem… how did he get here though?"

"Ne Lena-lady? Isn't Tim smaller?" Lavi approached the frozen Lin and nestled Timcampy. "Don't worry Lin. He doesn't bite… frequently."

"Actually yeah, He is smaller." She replied.

"Frequently?" Naru asked. Tim seemed to grin in reply and showed his amazingly sharp and big teeth to everyone (except Lin).

* * *

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the idea of the plot!

Wow, This was fast 0.0

Well, I guess having nothing to do (except Math exercises but well, who cares about Math xD) made me write this... that and having received 8 -man volumes at my birthday. Yay! I don't have to read them online anymore!

Anyway, now that I've rambled about unnecessary things... I'll continue xD

I'm sorry about the whole OC's story but somehow, it just didn't seem right to just put the whole Evangeline and Hearst thing without it. By the way, this wasn't supposed to have appeared but somehow, I discovered I needed Evangeline to bring Timcampy. It was supposed to be already in the tower but... I said it last chapter, they had years to find Timcampy! Hope it didn't suck much.

I also tried my hand in Allen's POV because I felt like it and it seemed better that way. Hope it didn't suck much -.-

And so Finally!

Thank you for reviewing, alerting and/or favoriting or just reading! I'm going to give a special thank you to **Shadow Priesstes**, who gave me really good advice! It really helped! Thank you~

And like always, I'll request reviews~


	13. Calm before the storm

_**Calm before the storm**_

Mai's eyelids dropped, heavier for each passing second, and she resisted the yawn threatening to escape her mouth. The voices from everyone mingled in such a way that a lullaby seemed to form, enticing her to just fall asleep, a wish that was stubbornly growing. The next thing she knew was the feeling of someone shaking her by the shoulder, gently trying to awake her. Her brown eyes travelled to the hand's owner and had to blink several times as the person, who happened to be Ayako, was blurry. Apparently she had fallen asleep sometime.  
"Mai..." the miko sighed "I know you are tired but please don't fall asleep." the teen drowsily nodded and shook her head trying to stay awake. It was more difficult than she thought.  
A warm cup was thrusted to her hands and she unconsciously grabbed it before it fell. The smell of coffee assaulted her nose and she looked at the spirit of the girl exorcist a little surprised by the offer.  
"My brother and my other friends needed to stay awake for days no end so I sometimes made them coffee." Lenalee explained, a bit of sadness colouring her voice"And if you go to sleep Road might want to... 'play' with you. I would feel better if we were all together at that point so please try to stay awake for a little longer alright?" Mai's answer was an experimental sip of the warm beverage. "It's good." she commented. The Chinese teen smiled at her "Anyway we were talking about the Timcampy problem..." the golden golem reacted to it's name, flying from Lin's head (who was on his laptop, again, and ignoring the outside world) to Mai's lap, snuggling there. "Is that normal?" the oldest woman (alive) asked. The spirit gave another of those nostalgic smiles she seemed fond of giving "Yes, it is unlike any other golem, acting of it's own will. That's why it can locate it's master and the reason we need to have it with us on Road's realm. Of course, since the realm is more of a spiritual place, Tim can't come usually. However" the spirit pointed to Mai, who patted the yellow golem uncertainly "from what we heard about you, you can take physical objects through a spiritual realm so, we are betting on that ability for Tim to go to Road's realm and show us the way to our friend!"  
The brunette took a while to process all the information before managing to make an hesitant smile "I don't know how to do that though... It was more of a fluke..."  
Ayako waved her off "As long as you grab that, it should go with you." 'At least, I hope so.' she thought.  
The sixteen year old sighed but nodded. She absently looked at the room. Lin was on the laptop, the medium was reading on the opposite side of the room by herself failing to not look interested by John's game with Bou-san and Yasuhara was reading a small book... A notebook perhaps? She frowned before asking the miko and Exorcist "Where are Naru, Lavi-san and Kanda-san?"  
"Lavi took Naru somewhere and Kanda..." Lenalee took the cue from the miko when she noticed the hesitation and continued "Is somewhere brooding. Probably meditating at the same time too." the brunette arched an eyebrow but gave a sound of understanding and sipped on her coffee again. She felt awake now.

"Sooooo... Have you been doing this for a long time?"  
Our favourite narcissist looked, to the most inattentive ones, to be bored but Lavi hadn't been a bookman's apprentice for nothing. He noted the tense way he walked, the mistrust and curiosity battling for dominance on his blue eyes and the slightly elevated eyebrow at the question. They had been walking for five minutes, passing through the dark hallways in silence since getting out of the base.  
"For far less time than you have been here." Naru retorted calmly. The red head blinked at the response before grinning "And here I thought you had no sense of humor!" he joked but the other teen only stared at him unamusedly making Lavi sighing and mutter something before turning serious. "You're probably asking why I called you to come with me aren't you?" He received no answer but it wasn't as if he needed one "You have the last bookman's notes but those were only done in case something happened to the old panda before he managed to write the facts down on a book."  
The SPR boss narrowed his eyes but he said nothing.  
"You seem a person who respects history" the exorcist comented to his companion. He stopped in front of a door and opened it, revealing the cluttered bedroom, old books and dust covering the floor and bed... "Bookmen give their emotions to this job so the destruction of a hidden history book from them is a sacrilege basically." the ex-apprentice bookman skilfully walked between the books until he reached a painting "So if they know someone wants to eliminate those books, they will hide them and pass only to those they trust to divulge them." he took out the painting and turned it so he could see the back and one of his hands followed the frame until he stopped and took out a key hidden in it. "Now, I saw your curiosity and I have a feeling that I'm not going to last much in this world soooo..." he walked to the bed and went under it. Naru heard some curses from the other until the red head came out of under the bed, clutching three, hard leather covered, books "would you mind taking care of these three? I think they need some love." despite the humorous way he said it, Lavi's lone eye was as serious as it could be.  
The blue eyed teen looked at the books and silently accepted though he permitted himself to ask one sole question "Why?"  
"Call it a feeling Naru-chan!"

-...-

Lin wasn't happy. Naru had basically just ditched him with the eyepatched exorcist, leaving him to deal with the odd golem alone. When the golem went to Mai he thought he would be able to do some work on the curse but found that the hourglass had disappeared from his table and, with a quick look around the base, from the room itself. Then, his laptop decided to turn off for unknown reasons which usually meant there was spirit activity. Of course the fact that he had met hundred year exorcists could have been the reason yet the device worked perfectly until that specific moment and, he noticed dryly, none of them were there.  
So, he figured, it might have been the other resident spirit, the one called Road.  
The Chinese man got up and went to the medium from the team and asked "Do you feel much spiritual activity around here?... Without being from the exorcists." he added when the girl gave him a look. Masako closed her eyes and shook her head in a negative "It might be hidden though." she murmured.  
Lin nodded and watched as John won the card game over Houshou. If the monk's splutters of disbelief were anything to go by, he had lost every single game he had played against the priest.  
Absently, he wondered how long this peace would last.

Kanda stared at the hourglass, the petals on the bottom all black but one that seemed to be battling against fate. His face was impassive and his innocence deactivated, to make sure that none of those psychics would see him and interrupt his thoughts... unless it was that medium but she seems to get a hint.  
He felt someone sit near him, like so many times before when Rouvelier had visited the headquarters, and both stayed quiet, silently staring at the hourglass, waiting.  
The air seemed to change, the room got darker and Kanda narrowed his eyes and fingered his Mugen, he heard his companion activating her dark boots and muttered "It's time..."

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing except the idea of joining two completely different manga's together.

This is late. Again.

Ok, my excuse this time (after school ended that is) is my laptop. I couldn't write anything because it decided to turn off whenever it felt like it (and I lost some school work because of this by the way -.-) so, I could only write on my iPod. Unfortunately, I only now managed to finish the chapter because I had none of my notes. My laptop is now fine but I had to erase everything for the repairing and I have no program where to write on it -.-;;;;

...I think that pretty much covers my frustation... on a lighter note I did an English exam and had a B (because of speaking since at everything else I had exceptional ^.^;) Yay!

Now the chapter... not my best but not my worst. Hope you at least enjoyed it.

Thanks to anyone who reviewed, favorited/alerted, read it and continues to read this despite my late updates.

Can you drop a review?


	14. Teasing

**_Teasing_**

It all happened in a blink of an eye.

Naru was seating on the bed, a stack of books in his hands, when the room was dipped in darkness. Then, he could only describe that, like ink, it trickled down the walls to show the new room. Not that it was that different.

The most noticeable difference was the tidiness yet, despite that, the first thing the young Shibuya Psychic Research boss' noticed was the books disappearance and how the light dimmed. With a casual look around, he saw that the light sources were now the pointy candles -a parody of hogwarts ceiling-, the books were nowhere to be seen, a chair had taken the place of the bed he was seating on and the door had changed from a boring, ordinary one to a heart shaped, checkered with a crown above one. Any other guy would have freaked out but the blue eyed teen only looked at the exorcist, who happened to be studying the room at the time, waiting for an answer, after he made sure that his clothes were still the same that is.

"It seems the game began." Lavi stated, giving an uneasy grin to the teen. The exorcist was fingering his, now not so small hammer in a deceptive way, his posture revealing how he didn't like the situation at all "I'm assuming we're supposed to get out the door?" the only reply he got was Naru getting up and moving towards the door 'And here I thought Yuu was antisocial...'

None of them touched the door though. Looking closer, one could see that the crown had a clock. A clock that went backwards.

"We have a countdown." Naru muttered, his eyes narrowing.

The red head nodded "Now the question is, for what exactly?"

A knock startled the two, who took a step back, and the door creaked open. The exorcist reaction was, Naru thought, different than expected. Especially when the door revealed a person.

"Y-you are..."

-Mai and the others-

Like what happened to Naru, the base received a morbid makeover. The most noticeable thing about it was, quite possibly, the other door on the opposite wall. The other was the candles. Like in the other room, they were above them and Mai had the absent thought that if the Noah really wanted, she could make swiss cheese out of them by letting gravity work on those candles.

The golden golem, almost as if sensing this thought, bumped it's head on Mai's hands, like a pet wanting attention from it's owner. It worked and the brunette tore her eyes off the candles to look at it.

"It seems it worked." a voice commented and the teen nodded, not looking up at Ayako "You are really pale..." she heard the miko mutter and then felt the woman's manicured hands cupping her cheeks and making her look at her. The woman gave her a sympathetic smile and helped her get up from the chair, dragging her to where the rest was.

"So, we have no exorcist here." Bou-san declared "Well, Noah fighting exorcist." he added.

Yasuhara hummed in agreement "Anyway, there are two doors. Which one should we take?" he pointed to both of the objects to make his point "Or should we stay here?"

"Perhaps it would be better to stay where we are so that we don't lose each other." Lin commented. The others had to agree with the man until Masako brought up a valid point.

"What if they had the same problem?" the voice was slightly muffled by the kimono sleeve but it was enough for them to understand.

No one answered that though the implications were obvious.

"Then what should we do?" John inquired and everyone looked at each other.

Their answer came the next moment in an unexpected way. A transparent wall fell down on the group. They were fast to scatter so as to not get cut but, because of that, they were seperated. The wall divided the cafeteria in a perfect half solving at least the problem with the doors since each half only had one.

Mai, Ayako, Bou-san and Timcampy were on one side and on the other were Lin, Masako, John and Yasuhara. Mai somehow got the feeling she had been cheated (no offense to Ayako and Timcampy of course).

Then, the two doors opened simultaneuosly and from each a figure emerged.

The one on Mai's side was a clown, his face hidden beneath a white mask with an empty smile. The hair was white and the clothes were also a blinding white. All in all, it was an oddity in the room. The clown bowed and motioned the group to go through the door.

On John's side, the figure was a cat. A grey cat with golden eyes and no collar. It sat on the floor, next to the open door, staring at them. They noticed the animal had a letter on his mouth.

Both groups looked at each other, hesitant to take the first step, knowing that whatever was beyond that door they probably won't like it. It was Lin who was the first to take the step. The other's shrugged.

They were already deep in this after all.

-Lenalee and Kanda *.*-

"Perhaps we should have stayed with them, Kanda." said Lenalee while looking around. Contrary to the other rooms, the one they were in didn't have candles. In fact it received a crazy makeover.

There was a door but no walls, furniture and the like around. Only darkness. The floor had small lakes, each with a softly glowing pink or white lotus and the girl couldn't help but be captivated by them. However, she didn't get close to them, guessing they would be dangerous.

There was no need to be a genius to see why the room was like that. Kanda's eyes were the only thing that betrayed his anger at the small flowers.

Suddenly, both exorcists noticed dark butterflies landing on some of the flowers and mentally (and, in Kanda's case, outloud) cursed when some of them showed teeth and flied in their direction.

Lenalee couldn't resist asking "How did she get ahold on teases?"

The Japanese teen snorted at that and replied "Who needs real ones, when one is where dreams are as real?" he slashed a couple of the deadly insects. The other exorcist also took care of some and with a glance at each other they silently agreed that retreat would be the best. Even if the Japanese teen didn't exactly like it.

So, they were unpleasantly surprised when, on turning, they discovered they were already surrounded.

"Whirlwind?" Lenalee asked, preparing to attack.

"Tche, do what you want."

Things didn't really start yet and they already hated it.

-ºoº-

Gene, despite himself, was impressed. In the bad sense.

The teen, watching everything from the television like thing in front of him, could see what the Noah did to the rooms and what she had prepared for after those. He mused that having virtually nothing to do in years gave her time to make... _that_.

A childish giggle made him look down at the girl (since his prison was now on the ceiling) "So, do you like it?"

He moved a little, hissing at the pain it caused, before replying sarcastically "If I say yes, will you stop torturing me for awhile?"

"No." she ignored the sarcasm.

"Then no, I really don't like it. Why couldn't you have written a book or something while waiting for whatever you are waiting to happen?"

If he didn't know she was a sadistic, psychotic, ready to kill someone ghost, he could have probably found the pout cute "That's no fun~" she whined before smirking up at him. He had come to know that smirk as 'I'm going to do some torturing on you now' and sighed. His body wouldn't take much longer and he wasn't sure if he could distract her enough to avoid her killing them all in boredom. Not that he had a choice.

"Do the best you got." He smirked despite the pain, challenging her to break him.

And of course she accepted it, her favourite weapons already pointing towards the teen "Don't worry. I will."

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Nope. I don't own DGM, Ghost Hunt or Harry Potter (I would pity my fans if that happened 0.0')

I find it frustating that I have been trying to write this chapter since... at least September, and I always froze on the first paragraph and, today, the day before school restarts, I manage to write it easily, without any problem. Life is unfair -.-

I should have made the chapter bigger but then it would take even longer and I won't push my luck. (;.; sorry)

Yes, I'm shocked that I updated too. Seriously. Besides the reason above, my lateness is also a result of real life and Hetaoni/Hetalia. Since I'm assuming you like this type of thing, I'm going to say go watch Hetaoni. Go to youtube, type Hetaoni and watch it. I fell in love with the plot~ (I would advise you to see/read Axis power hetalia first though. More of an impact)

Thanks for the alerts/favourits/reviews and for anyone putting up with my lateness.

If you dropped a review, it would make my day.


	15. Chapter 15

**-Lavi-Naru-**

The red-headed exorcist glared at the figure in front of him, mentally going through what happened last time they had met. He sensed the questioning glances he received from the SPR member and sighed, knowing the other would question him the moment they found themselves free from their guide. He wasn't really in the mood to answer though.

Naru, understanding there would be no use in saying anything, decided that watching their surroundings would prove to be more useful than letting his vision roam between his two companions. They were in a maze like place, the halls mostly dark. They were following the only path that had lights on-even though the lights only stayed on until they passed. The walls were black with a hint of dark blue. He thought about his business associates and employees and wondered if they were in some of those corridors he had passed.

When they all stopped, it was in front of a door and their guide turned around, his sole green eye boring into the exorcist's one before saying "And I leave here."

"What's beyond that door?" Naru asked, finally using his voice for something.

He shrugged "I don't know that and it is not my place to know now, isn't it _Lavi_?"

The aforementioned person ignored the emphasis on his name and retorted with a question of his own "How come you are here anyway? I thought you had kind of disappeared after that."

And their guide, with his red hair down, hummed "Well, despite you denying it" a mirthless grin appeared on his face "I am part of you." he looked at the dark corridor behind them "And she just brought me back to_ guide_ you."

"And that is your only purpose in this?" Naru questioned, eyes locked on the guide.

There was a chuckle from the questioned, no real emotion behind it. "I'm not meant to _be_ part of History. I only go _along_ with it." with that, he walked away, in the direction they had come from. Just before he was swallowed by the darkness he added "Go _write_ History, _Lavi_."

The duo stared at the place the other disappeared "... That was yourself?"

"... It doesn't really matter." Lavi muttered solemnly and looked at the rather plain wooden door "I wonder what's in this room..." he didn't expect an answer, choosing to grab his innocence and putting his other hand on the knob "Here we come."

**-. -Lenalee.-Kanda-**

"Road has too much time on her hands." Lenalee said, looking at the crossroad they were both in. Kanda tch'ed, walking to one of the three ways they could choose from, not even looking if his companion was following or not. Both exorcists randomly took turns whenever they had to choose. Lenalee eventually pointed out that the walls seemed to have some very subtle hints of colours. They were currently in a corridor where the walls had a dark purple hint and had to choose either to continue on that colour, or choose blue or green.

"..."

"Blue?"

"Tche" taking this as an affirmative, Lenalee turned left and the two walked for a while until they reached a wooden door.

Without a word, Kanda opened the door, his hand already on Mugen. When he saw only Lavi and Naru he glared at them in annoyance, contrary to Lenalee who immediately ran to them and started fussing about them.

"Yuu-chan!" the red headed exorcist yelled, wrenching himself free from the worried girl and choosing to glomp the Japanese teen. A string of curses fell from the angry exorcist and Lenalee and Naru watched as the two made another scene.

"Guys..." the girl sighed, sweatdropping. She looked around the room, taking note of the clock right in the air.

When a small laugh sounded, everyone froze. The exorcists activated their innocence and turned to the sound, seeing only darkness ahead.

"It seems our play time is over" Lavi commented, swinging his hammer. Another giggle cut through the air and then there was silence.

"... Wasn't something suppose to happen?" the redhead said, confused. He gripped his hammer tighter, expecting anything to happen yet nothing changed, not even with the break of the silence.

And it was then that he heard a pained scream.

**–.-. John-Masako.-Lin-Yasuhara.**

John wasn't sure how to react as he read the small note the cat gave him. It didn't really surprise him that the Noah would be interested in him. After all, from what he heard, priests weren't exactly well liked by that family.

The note was rather simple and not really threatening - until he remembered from who it was that is. It simply said that she had got interested in him and wanted to...play with him. Alone. And to say his goodbyes to everyone. And to pray to God and see if he would get saved.

Not threatening at all.

Yasuhara must have noticed his contemplative silence and spoke to him, asking what the note said. Without a word, he gave the paper to the university student, giving a small smile when he saw the Japanese teen frowning.

"Not very comforting." Yasuhara mumbled, calling the other two's attention. Masako looked at the note and frowned, the kimono sleeve once again hiding part of her face. Lin only glanced at them for a second, choosing to shift his attention to the cat - which was guiding them to wherever they were supposed to go.

They were in a maze like place, the walls the slightest bit of purple and the candles on the side only lighted up when they were almost without any light from the previous one.

The cat took a sudden turn and the rest followed, stopping at the sight of a wooden door.

"..." they looked at each other apprehensively before looking at the cat. The cat stared back at them, sitting quietly next to the door, tail curling around its body. When no one moved, the cat got up and scratched the first person it caught (who happened to be Yasuhara who yelped at the sting) and then walked to the door, glancing back at them.

"Stupid cat" the Japanese student muttered, massaging the place that had been scratched. Seeing they were going nowhere, Lin walked up to the door and opened it. "... It's dark." he commented.

Masako put herself next to the Chinese man and tried to see anything besides the darkness, blinking when she saw a small light appear. With it, other small dots started to light the place, though not enough to show what was in it.

Sensing no immediate danger, Lin walked in, followed by the medium and then Yasuhara. John paused before entering and looked at the cat, which locked its golden eyes with his blue ones. Shaking his head, he entered, wondering why the cat bothered him so. Before the door closed completely, he looked back and noticed a rather human shadow on the floor, where he knew was supposed to have a cat's.

The room beyond the door was, in one word, confusing. There were stairs leading down, up, left, right, cages in mid-air, broken toys strewn about on the floor, a couple of broken mirrors, with no end in sight. A clock was floating in the air.

Yasuhara picked up a decapitated teddy bear and looked it over "If I didn't know better and some things here didn't break the laws of physics, I would swear this was reality." he said to himself "Even the toys feel real."

"Is it safe to touch those things?" John asked Yasuhara when he saw the other pick the toy, his attention then shifting to the ceiling (he at least though it was a ceiling) where he watched the levitating candles above them warily.

"This room was made with the intention of confusing the occupants." Lin declared, interrupting Yasuhara's answer "It would be best if we refrain from touching anything in this room unless necessary." at this he gave a pointed look to the university student, who dropped the bear and sighed.

The only girl in the group stayed quiet, observing her surroundings with a frown. It looked as if the Noah had had a tantrum and decided to destroy and then change the room for other purposes. She walked to one of the mirrors, watching her reflection on the cracked object. The medium looked away when she heard a thud, an eyebrow going up when she saw that the other three members had somehow fallen and were on a pile, Lin on the bottom and Brown on the top apologizing profusely.

With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to the mirror.

Where her reflection was supposed to be, a shadow was instead. A too big smile and two too big circles where the eyes should be, was all she could truly see regarding the face (which, like the rest of the body, was dark, with the mouth and eyes white).

If she had been anyone else, Masako would probably scream and scamper away, scared half to death from the change. Fortunately, being a medium as she was had the perk of sudden appearances and the like not surprising her that much since it was a rather common occurrence, and so, she only blinked as a way to show her shock.

The shadow's smile seemed to grow with her calm response. The three behind her started to talk with eachother.

They held a sort of staring contest, the shadow with it's never waning smile and Masako with her calm, non-revealing expression. She deemed the conversations the other three were having unimportant at the moment, preferring to discern whether the shadow was friendly or not (needless to say, she was leaning for the non-friendly, considering where she was).

Eventually, the shadow moved its arm, and pointed to the left, eyes never leaving the girl. The medium glanced at the indicated direction, only seeing a stair and a cabinet before returning her attention to the shadow.

Her reflection was back and the shadow gone.

"I do not think now's the time to be looking at the mirror, Hana-san..." John pipped up, having noticed the medium in front of the mirror. She gave him a look and walked to the cabinet, ignoring the questioning looks she received from the three males.

The first two drawers had nothing but the third was stuck halfway and she could see an object inside. "Lin" she called "would you mind opening this for me?"

"Sure, she can touch stuff!" Yasuhara complained, receiving a glare from the medium, who made way for the Chinese man look at the drawer.

"It's stuck. Why would you want to open this?" Lin asked, tugging at the drawer.

"It's better than to bicker incessantly like you have been doing." her answer made the man give a shrug and elicited a complain from the university student.

With a few strong tugs, the drawer opened enough to show and to take out the object.

"It looks like a compass." the priest said.

"Why would we have a need for a compass?" Yasuhara wondered, grabbing said object to look at it better.

Masako looked at Lin "What is the purpose of a compass?" she questioned rhetorically.

Then they stared at the compass, which pointed to one of the stairs that went up.

"Let us follow the north then."

Before they took to the stairs though, Masako looked at the mirror again, managing to catch the shadow waving at them. She turned and walked up the stairs, followed by the other three.

**-Mai-Ayako-Hoshou-Timcampy-**

The clown, Mai noticed, was too quiet to be true. As they walked the hallways, not one sound came from their guide. In fact, the only sounds she was hearing were the SPR trio breathing and the steps against the floor, the only proof there was actually one.

She studied their guide, trying to ignore the tell tale signs that told her she was in a labyrinth. Unfortunately, that didn't work and her mind seemed set in reminding her why labyrinth weren't good for anyone involved.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked to see the monk giving her a look. Ayako, who was beside him, looked her over and frowned "You are so pale..." she muttered, glancing at the clown who made no move to indicate he/she/it was listening.

The brunette gave a frail smile "I'll be fine as soon as I- we- get out of here." the adults gave a nod in understanding, the monk's hand tightening his hold in reassurance. She felt the golem moving on her pocket.

The trio followed their guide in silence until their destination.

Said destination was not in the form of a door. They were stopped at a dead end, the masked guide with the empty smile simply staring at them. Hoshou opened his mouth, probably to ask what was the problem, but what came out was a scream of surprise when the floor disappeared beneath their feet. They only saw the clown waving at them before gravity took hold of them and they were falling.

Their landing took the air from their lungs. It took more than a few seconds to regain their breaths and in the meantime, they mentally grumbled about bruises.

Timcampy fluttered worriedly around them, being the only one who wasn't affected by the fall, bumping gently on Mai's hair, before returning to her pocket.

The monk was the first to look around, followed by Mai who helped the Miko get to her feet. They had landed on top of one of those floating presents and Mai recognized other presents moving in patterned ways, some getting closer and then farther from one another. Curious, Ayako looked beyond the border and only saw darkness.

"I have the feeling that there's no real floor this time." she said, walking farther away from the border.

"Now what?" Hoshou questioned, a little annoyed from the fall.

Another present got closer, until there was only a small distance between both of them. Unfortunately, the distance would only be covered with a jump.

"... Perhaps we are supposed to jump on these?" Mai offered, not very thrilled by the idea.

"I don't think that's a very good idea..." the older woman commented, seeing the distance between the two. The other present started to move away with no warning, stopping a few ways away, another one placing besides it.

"It's not as if we have any other choice." the monk retorted, staring at the border "I also think that we are not supposed to be here much time."

"Why not?" Ayako turned to him, frowning, tugging the younger girl back when she noticed how close to the border she was.

"Because" and he pointed to where he was staring "darkness doesn't seem to want us here." they all look at the border on the opposite end of where they were. With a jolt, Ayako noticed that the darknes she saw beyond the border was consuming it, slowly going in their direction.

When the other present was near enough, they didn't hesitate and jumped on it, just in time to watch as the platform they were in disappear from their sight.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but the idea of joining these two manga/anime. Everything else belongs to their creator.

Oh, look! A wild (late) update appears!

I was going to write more than this but I looked at the size and decided that I should at least show that I'm alive. That and I wouldn't forgive myself if the world actually ended and I still hadn't updated ahaha. (_I'm not sure if I love the chapter or hate it)_

Thank you for those who actually stick with me and my procrastination, those who review, favourite, follow or even read!

On a completely random note: I miss having English in school ;-;


End file.
